Tag Archives: counter strike machinima

The Lost TLW Factoids, Part 1

magnifying-glassThanks for all of the feedback on Episode 1 of Web Zeroes. We’re looking forward to the release of Episode 2 on Wednesday. It’s hard to believe that we’ve already shot 7 of those things, and I’m writing the 8th for this upcoming weekend. The whole thing has been a crazy learning process for all of us at SFF, and hopefully you guys stick with us through it.

I was thinking the other day about The Leet World and doing a bit of reflecting on the Counter-Strike machinima that was, and I remembered some cool pieces of commentary that I’ve been wanting to share with you guys. Normally, this kind of stuff would come up in a podcast, but as we haven’t had any time to ourselves lately, I thought it’d be good to go ahead and post it.

Here are some lost TLW factoids for you to nom on.

  • Player was originally going to be a girl. Yes, how very Spriggs (and Red vs Blue, come to think of it) of us. I’m not sure when the decision was made. Somewhere in the middle of making the first episode, we felt that if Player ever got a voice, the voice would have to be funnier than what he already was. We decided we could never top him as he has always existed in the show, so he stayed voiceless and male-ish.


  • Asher’s original name was Jenkins. As many have surmised, Leeroy, the World of Battlelore player extraordinaire, was named after Leeroy Jenkins. As even more of a nod to the classic video, we were going to name Asher as “Jenkins”. We eventually changed this idea so that people wouldn’t start assuming that Leeroy and Asher were twins, seeing as how they shared the same model. Asher’s actual name is a reference to Ash, the android in Ripley Scott’s Alien.


  • Westheimer was going to be Chet’s father. This is one that I’m still kind of sad we ditched. For whatever reason, we chunked it by the end of season 1, but Westheimer was intended to be Chet’s father. This adds even extra humor to Chet’s lamentation in Episode 5 about never knowing his father.


  • Ahmad’s original murderer? The Producer. After Asher detonated (inside the warehouse instead of outside), the gang was going to leave the burning building behind, assuming Ahmad’s demise was inevitable. He is eventually found by the Producer and some Noonien soldiers. Ahmad reaches to the Producer for help and is shocked when Prod pulls out a silenced pistol, executing him amidst the rubble of de_nuke. The Producer simply walks away, ordering the soldiers to “Clean up this mess”. As awesome as this would have been, it was just a little bit too brutal and far less heroic for our lovable noob.

There are plenty more where those came from. Feel free to send in your questions about The Leet World, I’d love to give out more information like this. And come back on Wednesday for more Web Zeroes!

Sneakers

russiaWe now present Episode 8 of Season 2 of The Leet World, Hide and Sneak. This episode starts to get the ball rolling for the second half of the season, which is about to pick up like a freight train. A freight train made of win.

In this episode, we see the house operating under some new dynamics, and the effects of Leeroy’s departure from several sides. Also, there are lulz. Anywho, check the TLW Premiere page to see a high-res version of the episode. Clear your browser cache if you’re still getting the old video.

See the new ep after the jump!
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The Curtain Closes

curtainEver tried to take a band-aid off, and you know it’s really going to suck when you do it, but you’ve got to just get it over with? Well, there’s no really easy way to say this, so…

Season 2 will be the last season of The Leet World.

I know this comes as a shock to a few of you, but there are quite a few good reasons that the show we all know and love will draw to a close over the next few months. And amidst all of that, there is even some good news that I think you can all be extremely excited about, but more on that later.

We started working on The Leet World back in May of 2007. To be honest, we thought we would only ever make a couple of episodes of it and then we’d give up on the thing altogether. We’ve been called a lot of things over the course of our lives, and motivated typically wasn’t one of them. But then something really awesome and shocking happened — people wanted more of it.

So around Episode 3 or 4 of the first season, we mapped out where we wanted the show to go. Over the course of a few weeks, we brainstormed, hashed some things out, and then came up with a really exciting story that would cover three full seasons worth of episodes. From that point on, we have been committed to that idea for the entire show.

So why is Season 2 the last, then? Read on for the text wall explanation, as well as a really awesome announcement.
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Game Changers

stormWe now present to you dudes Season 2, Episode 7 of The Leet World, Tempest. As we’ve said for several weeks, this episode is a game changer, in more ways than one.

It also officially marks the halfway point of Season 2, in terms of the story we’re telling. Does that mean the whole season is going to be 14 episodes? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see how it unfolds.

But just like Episode 8 was a big mile marker last season, this episode is serving the same function. And just like last year, we’re taking a few weeks off to get ready for the back half of this epic season. We need it!

Remember, you can watch a higher res version at the TLW premiere page, or just watch it after the jump!
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Even Darker Nights

hype-train1Episode 7 should be gracing your monitors at some point next week, and we couldn’t be more excited. I’m not trying to get the hype train going overboard or anything, but I’ll admit that I’ve been looking forward to this episode since we started working on the season. When you’re working on a long term project like this, it takes a Herculean effort to not get ahead of yourself when you’ve got cool things down the road. I think we’ve done a decent job of it so far.

Anywho, some surprises are in store for the cast (and you dudes) in Episode 7, to say the least. You might pick up on one or two through the screenshots, or maybe there’s nothing there at all and I just want to make your brains hurt. Both of these things are possible.

tlw207_screenshot1 tlw207_screenshot2 tlw207_screenshot3

Enjoy!

The Dark Night

As was indicated at the end of the last episode, the storm is gathering for the folks at The Leet World house. We now present to you dudes Episode 6, Thunderhead, for your viewing enjoyment. In this episode, we see the second challenge, which has a slightly different feel than any of the other challenge episodes have had up to this point.

I’m really thinking you guys are going to dig this episode and the next one, which will be out by the end of March. Some cool stuff is going down, and I think you’ll like where it’s all pointing. Remember, you can check out a higher resolution version on the TLW premiere page.

Or, just check the episode out after the jump!
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Attack of the Threes

The Leet World Season 2, Episode Three should be out some time next week. I know some of you are going a little rabid waiting for it, so thanks for being patient. Basically, because of the holidays and such, we lost a few weekends of filming, which is when most of the work goes into production.

However, we’re all good now. Well, I am. Daniel is still his evil self, with his plots and schemes.

Also, Web Zeroes Episode 3 should be out the week following that. This episode really gets into the stuff we’ve been dying to get to, which is just the three geeks doing their thing. It’s even got orcs, friend requests and mana.

In other news we’ve got a sweet new feature over at GamerSushi, 7 Things a Gamer Should Never Admit. Check it out!

And here’s a fun poll for you dudes to sound off about. Remember, if you’re having trouble logging in, just refresh. Tell us your thoughts!

This poll is now closed.

Rolling on the Second

We’re incredibly relieved that Season Two has made its debut, after months of planning and a few weeks of diligent production. What was cool about Episode 1 was that it was technically finished last Tuesday, but we were able to spend a couple of days polishing and tweaking some of the edit. Plus, there was that day where we gorged like heifers.

Episode Two rolls onward. Because of our new production method of filming three and four episode chunks, we’re currently in the middle of shooting the third episode while the second is in post. Hot stuff.

I know a few of you are asking about when it’s coming out, but we’re still not sure yet. There are a lot of factors that go into releasing an episode, and getting them all to coincide is like conjuring some exotic spell from a bubbling cauldron. Dumbledore’s wand, etc.

I promised some screenshots from Episode Two, and here they are.

Enjoy. Also, I just added a sweet feature to GamerSushi about gaming’s best guns. FPS for the win. Go check it out!

Premiere Pics

We appreciate all of the comments on the Season 2 teaser/Halloween message/release announcement thing we put out. Glad you guys are enjoying the ride leading up to the second season. Trust me, we are too. We’ve had some bumps, but now everything is running smoothly. Much thanks to Lord Ned for the assistance with some of my Hammer frustrations.

And while I’m thinking about it, I have some screenshots from Episode 1 of Season 2. Enjoy!

I know that some of you are having problems logging in. That comes from some pretty hardcore caching we’ve got set up on the site- all you need to do is just refresh the page (try it more than once if you need to) and it should help.

There’s a cool new post up on GamerSushi, titled “5 Features That More Shooters Need”. Thought you guys would like it since I mention some Counter-Strike in there.

Also, the dudes over at The Duo Group have just put out a new Gears of War machinima, as well as the guys over at LitFuseFilms. It seemed appropriate to mention these in honor of the hallowed Gears of War 2, which I will be beating like it stole something later this week.

TLW: Episode 3 Commentary

So, here’s the commentary for Episode 3 of The Leet World, which we were finally able to record when Daniel got back. Pardon some of the audio levels, there were a few mic issues, forcing us to record it the way we would a podcast, rather than what the last commentaries sounded like.

On the plus side, it is now attached to the video of Episode 3, so no worries on playing it yourself in time with the audio file. We might get around to the first two eps eventually, but there definitely wasn’t time to do it over the weekend. This whole commentary thing has been trial and error for us, that’s for sure. I think the Ep 4 commentary will be perfect.

So listen/watch, comment and enjoy. Don’t worry if you don’t see any video at first, it doesn’t start til a few seconds in.